IWCO Direct Switching to EFI Monarch Print Management System

FOSTER CITY, CA—May 3, 2011—EFI, a world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, announced that IWCO Direct, a leading national provider of direct marketing solutions, has chosen EFI Monarch as its new print management system.

In operation for more than 40 years, IWCO Direct is one of the nation’s largest providers of direct marketing solutions, helping its customers acquire, retain, and engage customers and members through highly personalized paper-based and digital marketing programs. The company provides direct marketing in a seamless solution including design, production, mailing and management services. IWCO has six printing and mailing plants in the United States, more than 2,500 employees, and sends 4 billion mail packages annually.

IWCO Direct is a long-time EFI Hagen and EFI PrintStream user, and used the Hagen system to its fullest capabilities in their Minnesota facilities. When the company acquired the U.S. operations of Transcontinental Direct last year, it sought a single, integrated system to provide standardized workflows, improved efficiencies and increased profitability. A review of available options lead them back to EFI, and IWCO Direct selected EFI Monarch —a flexible, powerful, intelligent and automated solution—as its enterprise wide print management system.

“We wanted to standardize on a single platform and after reviewing PrintStream, Monarch and other vendors, it became apparent to us that the new version of Monarch would provide the most benefit to our entire organization,” says Chris Van Houtte, vice president of information technology at IWCO Direct. Their three Minn. facilities running Hagen will upgrade to Monarch, and the three other plants (two in Pennsylvania and one in California) will add Monarch.

“EFI Monarch is the ideal choice for us,” continues Van Houtte. “It’s the best fit for our unique end-to-end total package business. With EFI, we know we can get up and running as quickly as possible, which is critical for us. The strength of EFI as a company, and the robust nature of Monarch as a product, were also key decision factors.”

Years ago, IWCO Direct created its own custom mailing module, which they will now integrate with Monarch. Their future plans call for working closely with EFI to add the new advanced mailing features available within the Monarch Planner application. “We’re excited about the future opportunity to optimize the system with the addition of Monarch Planner to improve our order entry and mailing processes,” comments Van Houtte.

About IWCO Direct IWCO Direct (iwco.com), one of the nation’s largest providers of direct marketing solutions, has served the needs of North American companies for more than 40 years. IWCO Direct helps its customers acquire, retain and engage customers and members through highly personalized paper-based and digital marketing programs. The company provides direct marketing like no one else by seamlessly supplying all design, production, mailing and management services in an integrated “total package” supply chain solution through operations in California, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. IWCO Direct pioneered commingling and continues to provide its customers with dramatic postage savings and faster time to market through its proprietary IWCO P.O.S.T. (Postal Optimization Strategy and Technologies) and RideShare commingling and logistics management programs, as well as its automated marketing program platform, proprietary data services and Mail-Gard critical communications recovery services. For the latest information on direct marketing trends, industry news, postal regulations and more, visit the Speaking Direct blog.